March 25, 2008

St. Patrick's Day: Homemade Irish Corned Beef and Vegetables

St. Patrick's Day already seems like a long time ago, even if it was just last week. We decided to go full on Irish this year (or, at least, uh, American-Irish) with corned beef and cabbage. And we accepted the Bon Appétit challenge of brining your own corned beef.

But let's jump ahead to the moral of this story: Brining our own beef for eight days produced disappointing results.

Before we get to that, though, let's talk about attempting to find Insta Cure #1.

Bon Appétit's recipe for corned beef is very straightforward. It essentially goes as follows: Brine for four days, flip, brine for four more days, boil until tender. Simple, right?

From the recipe, we learned that an additive called Insta Cure #1 is used in most corned beef to give the meat its notable pink color, and to prevent the meat from turning gray. Gray meat doesn't make for good photos, so we began our search looking for Insta Cure #1 in Our Nation's Capital.

The magazine recommends SausageMaker.com as a place to get Insta Cure. However, because we had not planned terribly far ahead for this meal, we didn't have the option to order from the site, where it sells for $8.99 per pound. Plus, we only needed 1 1/2 tablespoons, and assumed we would be able to find some locally.

Most people hadn't even heard of it. The customer service rep at Giant recommended that we try looking in the pharmacy.

We racked our brains and exhausted our options, finally deciding to succumb to gray meat. Comments on the recipe suggested that the meat would actually be healthier without the additive, which made us feel a little better.

Eight days of brining later, we were ready to cook -- or rather, boil. This may be the easiest dish we have cooked in a long time. The meat boils for several hours, you remove it and boil the vegetables, you reheat the meat in the boiling water, and you're done. It's amazingly easy.

Turns out the corned beef was only okay. The meat wasn't as tender as we had hoped, and the favor was underwhelming. The vegetables, though, were fantastic -- especially the cabbage.

The stand-out of the meal were the condiments that the magazine recommends serving with the corned beef: Horseradish Cream and Guinness Mustard. Both are delicious and the perfect accompaniments for corned beef. Though we'll probably buy a pre-brined corned beef next year, we will most definitely make these sauces again.

Spicy horseradish cream and malty Guinness mustard amp up the flavor of this home-corned beef. You might need to special-order the brisket from your butcher, and you'll have to start brining the meat eight days before you cook and serve it. The Insta Cure No. 1 is optional, but it's nice to use because it gives the meat its traditional pink color. Save the leftover corned beef and vegetables for the sandwiches and hash.

For brine:Pour 6 cups water and beer into large deep roasting pan. Add coarse salt; stir until dissolved. Add sugar; stir until dissolved. If desired, stir in Insta Cure No. 1. Mix in pickling spices. Pierce brisket all over with tip of small sharp knife. Submerge brisket in liquid, then top with heavy platter to weigh down. Cover and refrigerate 4 days.

Remove brisket from brine. Stir liquid to blend. Return brisket to brine; top with heavy platter. Cover; refrigerate 4 days. Remove brisket from brine. Rinse with cold running water. do ahead Can be made 2 days ahead. Wrap corned beef in plastic, cover with foil, and refrigerate.

For corned beef and vegetables:Place corned beef in very large wide pot. Add stout and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Wrap cheesecloth around bay leaves, coriander seeds, allspice, and chile, enclosing completely, and tie with kitchen string to secure. Add spice bag to pot with beef; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until beef is tender, about 2 1/4 hours. Transfer beef to large baking sheet.

Add turnips and all remaining vegetables to liquid in pot; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until all vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to baking sheet with beef. Return beef to pot and rewarm 5 minutes. Discard spice bag.

*Insta Cure No. 1 is a mixture of sodium nitrate and salt that is used in cured and smoked sausages to prevent botulism. In this brine, its only purpose is to prevent the meat from turning gray, so you can certainly leave it out. You'll find Insta Cure No. 1 at sausagemaker.com.

**A thin, red, very hot three-inch-long chile; sold at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and Latin markets.

Comments

St. Patrick's Day already seems like a long time ago, even if it was just last week. We decided to go full on Irish this year (or, at least, uh, American-Irish) with corned beef and cabbage. And we accepted the Bon Appétit challenge of brining your own corned beef.

But let's jump ahead to the moral of this story: Brining our own beef for eight days produced disappointing results.

Before we get to that, though, let's talk about attempting to find Insta Cure #1.

Bon Appétit's recipe for corned beef is very straightforward. It essentially goes as follows: Brine for four days, flip, brine for four more days, boil until tender. Simple, right?

From the recipe, we learned that an additive called Insta Cure #1 is used in most corned beef to give the meat its notable pink color, and to prevent the meat from turning gray. Gray meat doesn't make for good photos, so we began our search looking for Insta Cure #1 in Our Nation's Capital.